


Atypical Summer

by hockeylvr59 (gleefanatic)



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22166710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gleefanatic/pseuds/hockeylvr59
Relationships: Auston Matthews/Reader
Kudos: 2





	Atypical Summer

It was finally the first day of your last year of school.

You’d said that before when you graduated from undergrad but this time you were serious, law school was the end of the road in your education. Adjusting your bag on your shoulder you smiled and nodded at your classmates as you made your way into the law school building. You could hear everyone chatting about what they’d done over the summer: the work they’d done, the trips they’d taken. It was all very typical and your summer was anything but. Yes, you’d also completed an internship. Yes, you’d also gone to visit your family. But that was where the similarities ended.

See you were supposed to intern with a firm located on the East Coast.

Instead said East Coast firm had sent you and another intern out to Arizona to work on a massive document review for pending litigation.

You had started the summer completely single with no plans of that changing any time soon.

The massive diamond currently located on your left ring finger (as well as the matching rose gold band that was on its way from the jeweler) made it obvious to anyone who saw them that that status had changed.

Your summer had been completely atypical and you really couldn’t even explain how it all happened.

___

You’d been partnered up with Alex on the first day of your internship. The firm liked to have its summer associates work in pairs in order to show what it would be like to be partnered with another attorney on a case.

A week later you were on a flight to Arizona, the firm having assigned the two of you to go over the hundreds of documents that they had received from discovery of a multi-million dollar products liability case. The company being sued was headquartered in Arizona and would give full access but all documentation had to remain there. Hence the trip across the country.

The firm was paying you both a travel stipend in addition to your weekly salary but the day after you’d been assigned Alex had stopped you in the hall to suggest that you stay with her and her family and save the hotel money to pay for your bar exam prep course or something. See Alex grew up in Arizona, and her house was only twenty minutes from the company where you’d be spending your summer. To sweeten the deal she threw in that her brother had a house with a pool not too far away and it was open for the two of you to use basically whenever. And at that point, there was no way you weren’t going to agree because the extra couple thousand dollars in your pocket would go a long way as a broke grad school student.

You didn’t realize exactly what you’d gotten yourself into until you had climbed out of the uber and entered the house, immediately being welcomed by the smiling face of Alex’s mom. You knew that face from somewhere and as she pulled you into a hug and you looked over her shoulder at the framed photos on the wall it all hit you at once.

You were standing in Auston Matthew’s childhood home and you were going to be staying with his parents and siblings for the next two months. As Ema Matthews pulled back from the hug, Alex introduced the two of you and the matriarch of the family insisted that you just call her mom.

It was clear that Alex had noticed the look of shock on your face and as she guided you upstairs to the guest room where you’d be staying she waited silently while you processed your thoughts.

“How…how did I not make the connection until now? Why didn’t you say something?” You sputtered causing Alex to laugh before flopping onto the bed.

“I figured you had figured it out already. And it’s not a big deal.” She was right that it shouldn’t be a big deal but for some reason, it felt like it was. Embarrassment flooded over your cheeks because you had spent so much time already talking about hockey that it was clear you were obsessed. All you could do was praise the gods that you hadn’t made a comment about how talented and attractive her brother is.

Your atypical summer had begun.

____

Your birthday fell toward the middle of your time in Arizona. And you’d thought about saying something to Alex or Ema but the weekend before your birthday they’d all started talking about their plans for the day in question and the last thing you wanted them to do was cancel things for you.

So Ema and Brian headed out to visit a massive flea market before going out for dinner and a movie. Alex was going on a date with her boyfriend and Breyana was going to a sleepover with some of her girlfriends. That left you home alone, curled up in bed with a Mike’s Hard Black Cherry Lemonade and some history documentaries. Not the ideal birthday but it would have to do.

Around 7:30pm there was a knock on the door to your room and you stirred from you documentary daze to murmur a response figuring that maybe Alex had come home early. Instead, when the door cracked open, it was the large frame belonging to Auston that appeared. In his hand was a cupcake with a single candle in it and he smiled almost shyly at you as he approached.

“So uh…it’s your birthday right?” He questioned and when you nodded confused as to how he knew that he ducked his head. Sitting on the bed at your feet he handed you the cupcake and murmured for you to make a wish, delaying the question you wanted to ask.

Blowing out the candle as Auston sang happy birthday to you in Spanish softly you smiled, the first real smile all day.

Twenty minutes later you were snuggled into a chair out by the Matthew’s fire pit, Auston having built a fire after asking if you minded him hanging out here with you. As you both nursed drinks, a beer for him, and another cooler for you, he admitted that he’d looked you up on Instagram and had seen your mother’s happy birthday post to you.

It was slightly creepy but at the same time he was the only one here to acknowledge your birthday without you having to say something and since you’d only spent a little bit of time around him it was a gesture that meant the world.

The sound of Auston’s laughter as you talked and joked by the fire wasn’t a sound that would leave you any time soon and as you crawled into bed you knew that this birthday definitely ranked at the top of the list for recent birthdays.

Of course, as soon as Ema found out that they’d missed your birthday, the rest of the Matthews insisted on taking you out for dinner and buying you a cake. There was no doubt in your mind that you had been lucky to meet Alex and to be invited into this family.

It wasn’t your typical birthday but you were certainly blessed.

___

This summer had flown by faster than you could believe, well at least the time when you weren’t pouring over thousands upon thousands of pages of document review. Even that had been fun with Alex by your side, the two of you playing music and chatting about this or that while reading. But as another work week ended, you’d finished the last day of your internship and were scheduled to fly out the following Tuesday.

Arriving back at the Matthews with Alex, you were both surprised when the moment you walked in the door, Auston was tossing duffle bags your way and telling the two of you to go pack and be quick about it. Once again you were confused, but Alex’s expression suggested that you should just go with it and as you dug through the drawers of the dresser in the guest room you couldn’t help but ask where you were going.

“Vegas.”

The words came from almost directly behind you and caused you to jump, having not expected Auston to be standing in the doorway to the guest bedroom.

“We’re going to Vegas?” You inquired, disbelief lacing your words.

“Would you just finish packing. Yes, I’m taking the two of you, well and Alex’s boyfriend, to Vegas for the weekend. You know…to celebrate.”

Arizona was honestly the only west coast placed you’d visited before and so you couldn’t help but be excited to experience the bright lights of Vegas even if drinking and gambling weren’t really your favorite activities.

You’d flown out that night and when you arrived you all went out to dinner before retreating back to your rooms to get some sleep for the following day.

Being the only vegas virgin among the group you insisted on doing something touristy during your time there. After walking the strip you’d dragged them all to the Mob Museum and though he’d deny it you were pretty sure Auston had fun there looking at artifacts and hearing stories. Again you’d had dinner as a group before Auston handed you and Alex tickets to a show, Celine Dion, and you couldn’t help but squeal. The guys would claim that the show was torture but again you had a feeling they enjoyed it.

It was after dinner that you parted ways from Alex and her boyfriend who wanted to go do their own thing. Auston had overheard you telling Alex that you’d never gotten drunk before and before you could stop him he was dragging you out to a club and feeding you drinks. Drinks in which you couldn’t even taste the alcohol and that made them dangerous. You remembered drinking and then dancing with Auston but then everything after that became a blur.

When you stirred Sunday morning, a heavy arm was draped over your waist and the sunlight streaming through the window was glinting off something and making your head hurt. As you slowly blinked yourself awake more fully, you realized that the arm around your waist belonged to Auston and that the glint was off of a ring, a ring that graced your left hand.

Immediately you jumped up and scrambled off the bed, drawing the blankets with you to cover your mostly naked form. The loss of the blankets made Auston stir and when he awoke it was to the sound of you crying as your brain frantically raced to process what the hell had happened.

You watched him run his fingers through his hair and as he did so the sun caught the metal that was placed on his own left hand causing you to throw a hand over your mouth as you slumped to the floor in disbelief.

“Oh my god…what the hell did we do?” You whispered, panicked. “We have to get an annulment.” It was then that Auston began to stand and his action caused you to realize that he was only wearing boxers. “Oh my god…did we have sex?” Your frantic thoughts continued to spill out along with your tears and they didn’t stop until Auston had pulled you back to your feet, his arms wrapping tightly around you. You didn’t understand how he could be calm and despite his whispering that things would be okay and that you’d figure it all out together, you couldn’t calm yourself, your heart racing.

“We didn’t have sex.” He insisted hoping that by answering one of your questions he could get you to breathe normally. “I don’t remember everything but I do remember coming back to the room and just passing out.” Unknowingly a sigh of relief escaped you. Yes, it appeared that you had gotten married while drunk, but at least you hadn’t lost your virginity while too out of it to even remember.

Hearing your sigh made Auston’s brows furrow and you softly whispered an explanation causing his eyes to go wide. He didn’t respond verbally, though his body language relaxed. After a moment, you felt his fingers twisting the ring around your finger and your mind jumped back to the stupid, drunken mistake you’d made. The two of you barely even knew each other, this wasn’t something that could happen.

Once again you murmured that you should get an annulment as soon as possible but for some reason, Auston tensed at your words. “Or we could try this.” He mumbled causing you to twist your head so hard you pinched a nerve. Immediately, the million reasons that this was a horrible idea flew into your head but before you could voice them Auston stopped you.

“You have a spa appointment with Alex. Go down, get a massage, try and relax, and take some time to think with a clearer head. We can talk about this later, a few more hours won’t make that much of a difference.” His thumb reached up to wipe at your tear stained cheeks and he kissed your forehead softly before stepping back. Gently he reached over to slip the ring off of your hand, freeing you of its weight and meaning for the moment. “I’ll take care of this until you get back.”

A two-hour deep tissue massage did leave you feeling more relaxed, your muscles having been turned to goo. But if anyone had asked you to recall a word of what Allie had said to you, you’d be shit out of luck. Your massage was followed by a mani/pedi and when you returned to the room Auston was waiting for you.

The two of you spent the entire afternoon talking and arguing. You’d started out convinced that you had to get an annulment. But Auston had shattered every single one of your arguments. You argued that the distance wouldn’t work. He argued that you only had a year of law school left and that you could just as easily practice in Ontario as you could the States. Granted the systems aren’t exactly the same but his point that it wouldn’t take that much more to join him in Canada was still valid. You’d argued that you had nothing but debt to bring to a marriage while he had more money than you could fathom. He’d simply responded that you were easily the most frugal person he’d ever met and that he had no real concerns about you having access to his money. He’d even insisted that once he had convinced you to give this a shot that he was going to add you onto his credit cards and bank accounts. Again you’d fought him but finally conceded when he backed down to just adding you to one of his credit cards for now. Finally, you’d argued that you weren’t going to do this if there was even going to be the temptation for him to stray. That it would be hard enough being married long distance, and you weren’t going to be made a fool because he was shacking up with other women behind your back. That was probably the hardest point for him to convince you of but somehow he managed and the two of you agreed that you were going to stay married, to give a relationship with each other a go, even if this was going to be the most unconventional marriage ever.

By the time the two of you were finished arguing you were exhausted and so Auston kissed you softly before insisting that you lay down for awhile while he found and talked to his sister. You tried to insist that you should tell her together but he declared that it was something he needed to do by himself.

So you had attempted to nap, though sleep wouldn’t come and you instead found yourself just staring at the ring Auston had slipped back onto your finger when you agreed that being his wife wasn’t the worst thing in the world. It was absolutely stunning. The round cut diamond was surrounded by scallops filled with smaller diamonds and the rose gold band almost had a twisted look containing a few more diamonds before it tapered off to the flat metal. You couldn’t remember picking it out which meant that Auston must have and even drunk the man had good taste.

With Auston down telling his sister that the two of you had gotten married and intended to stay married, you decided that you should probably bite the bullet and call your parents. They were shocked and disappointed, you could hear your mother crying and it broke your heart, but eventually, they agreed that you had to make your own choices and if you were certain about this than they would do their best to support you. Though you weren’t sure when you could arrange for Auston to meet them you did promise that you would face time them with him before you left Arizona so that they could at least talk to him for a bit.

As you hung up with your parents, the door to the hotel room burst open and Alex jumped on the bed with you for a moment before pulling you up.

“Come on. We’re going shopping.” She insisted. You couldn’t believe that those were the first words out of her mouth and when she noticed you just staring at her she stopped and wrapped her arms around you. “Convincing you to stay married to him might be the smartest damn thing my brother has ever done. I’m so happy for the two of you and I’m here for whatever you might need.” Letting out a sigh of relief that she didn’t appear angry, at least with you, you slipped shoes back on and grabbed your phone and wallet so that she could lead you to wherever it was you were going shopping in Vegas. “I always wanted a big sister.” She added. “Though I never thought Auston would actually give me one. Are you sure you want to be married to my annoying little brother?” She teased and when you could only blush she smiled.

“Somehow he’s convinced me to give this a chance. I don’t know Alex…I’m scared that it could go horribly wrong but what if he’s right and it all works, is it worth that risk?”

“You’ll never know unless you try.”

___

After shopping with Alex, the four of you caught your plane back to Arizona, your engagement/wedding ring making its way into your bag once you’d landed. Auston had slipped his wedding ring onto the chain he wore around his neck for the moment and you couldn’t help but notice that he kept touching it while he drove. Dropping you and Alex off at his parent’s he promised that you’d see him tomorrow and before you could go inside he inquired about your ring size because he wanted to get you the wedding band to match the other because evidently, one right wasn’t enough. Because you knew that if you didn’t tell him, his sister would find out and relay the information you informed him that you wore a size 8 and he nodded, sneaking a quick kiss before letting you head inside.

After sleeping in the following morning, you were informed by Alex that you needed to go put your new dress on because you were all going to Auston’s for the day. You assumed that it was simply so that you could spill the news to the rest of his family that you’d gotten married….but you assumed wrong.

Stepping into Auston’s backyard you were shocked by the amount of people there. Auston was chatting with some of his friends and some of the business interns that were working out of the company you’d spent the summer trapped in littered the backyard.

Handing you a bottle of water, Alex leaned close to whisper in your ear. “So this was supposed to be a going away party for you…but uh I guess it’s going to be that slash a wedding reception instead.”

“Oh…” You murmured taken off guard. Before you could start to panic, Alex was stealing your phone and after adjusting a few settings she handed it back.

“You’re dj…get to it.”

After that, it didn’t take long for you to settle into a comfortable patio chair with Alex and Breyana next to you as you blasted music through Auston’s yard and sang along with the lyrics. Though you had relaxed a little, you were focused on hiding your ring because the dress you were wearing prohibited you from wearing it around your neck like Auston was his. You were also anxiously awaiting the arrival of Ema and Brian.

Shortly before they arrived a few other familiar faces wandered into the backyard. Hearing someone scream Auston’s name you twisted to see Mitch and Steph making their way across the yard. Just as you were processing Auston’s best friend’s arrival, Patrick Marleau and Christina joined the group across the yard and suddenly you felt like you couldn’t breathe. Eyes wide you looked at Alex.

“What did you do? You asked her, nearly whimpering. Alex at least had the courtesy to look like she might be regretting her decision and you handed her your phone before standing up to slip into the house. You needed a moment to catch your breath away from all of the people. When someone knocked on the door a few minutes later you expected it to be Alex or even Auston, instead, the door opened to reveal Breyana.

“Hey…are you okay?” She murmured and when you groaned in response she slipped into the room closing the door behind her. It didn’t even cross your mind to hide the ring and when Breyana saw it she squealed in excitement, practically pouncing on you. “Oh my god?! Are you serious?? I mean Alex told me something had happened in Vegas but she wouldn’t tell me what and…” Her words blathered on for a moment before finally making sense again. “You and Auston got married! Oh, I’m so happy for you. I couldn’t have picked someone better for him myself.“ It didn’t seem to faze her in the slightest that this had happened completely out of the blue, there was nothing but joy and happiness pouring off of her and thankfully it was somewhat contagious. Hugging her tightly you took a few deep breaths before standing up.

“Thank you.” You stated, softly hugging her once more before the two of you headed back outside, ring more consciously hidden.

It was clear as soon as you stepped out that Auston had been looking for you and when he saw you he quickly pulled you into his arms, kissing you soundly. The moment you separated to breathe it was clear that he had told his parents and while you were worried about what they’d said, Auston didn’t give you time to dwell on it, pulling you closer to his chest as the music shifted to some love song. Your brain didn’t even process what song it was as Auston gently guided you through a slow dance, your first as a married couple.

The rest of the afternoon and evening passed with only happy, contented feelings settling in you. Auston led you around to his friends, introducing you as his wife and seamlessly steering all chirping to himself instead of to you. Pictures were taken of you with your new sisters, with your new husband, and your entire new family. They may not be your typical wedding pictures and you were sad your family wasn’t here but it was something, a memory you hoped you’d always be able to treasure.

As the sun began to set, most of Auston’s friends and his family, your family, left for the evening with promises to meet up for brunch before your flight left. Left to settle around the fire was Auston’s Leaf family and before long it felt like you fit right in with that group as well. Having helped raise your sisters you could talk with Patrick and Christina about the boys and you found that you had similar tv taste as Steph. Mitch was impressed with your hockey knowledge as well as the fact that you had been playing World of Warcraft since it originally came out. It wasn’t Fortnight but he claimed it was a start.

For the first time sober, you fell asleep in Auston’s arms and though you were sad that it would be the last time for a while, you sought comfort in the fact that he was yours and it was just the first of many.

___

Drawing yourself back to the law school you moved silently to your classroom and took a seat in the middle of the room. Thinking about this summer made it all feel like a dream. But then you’d look down at your left hand and realize that it was all very real. It wasn’t your average summer, it was your last as a student, but the first of the rest of your life.

Ring:

Reception dress:


End file.
